Ball bat

ABSTRACT

A ball bat comprising an elongated support piece, a first elongated wood piece and a second elongated wood piece. The elongated support piece has an elongated upper surface and an elongated lower surface opposite to the elongated upper surface. The elongated support piece has plural radial bores aligned axially and spaced from each other. The elongated upper surface of the elongated support piece faces upwards and is attached to the first elongated wood piece, and the elongated lower surface of the elongated support piece faces downwards and is attached to the second elongated wood piece, so that the elongated support piece is embedded and fixed between the first and the second elongated wood piece. The overall weight of the ball bat and its center of gravity can be adjusted according to the number and allocation of the radial bores.

RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the benefit of Taiwanese Patent Application Serial No. TW 103202626, filed Feb. 14, 2014, entitled BALL BAT which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a ball bat, and more particularly to a ball bat having increased resistance to breakage, so that the service life of the ball bat can be extended.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A ball bat of good quality is usually made by cutting and processing fine wood. As the raw wood price increases, the price of good quality ball bats also increases rapidly. However, the break probability of the ball bat will be increased by using wood of less quality.

When a hitter hit hardly with a ball bat, because of the length of the ball bat, the impact force the ball bat subjected to at the instant of the ball bat hitting the ball makes the ball bat vibrate and bend slightly. When the force the wooden ball bat subjected to exceeds the limit it can take, the region on ball bat near the handle section, i.e., the region of thinnest thickness, will be broken right away. Certainly that the breaking of the ball bat is determined by many factors including the ball bat structure, the stress tolerance of the material, or even the ball bat holding position of the hitter, the contact point of the ball to the ball bat, the ball speed and the ball bat swing speed and direction, etc. If the impact force exerted on the contact point is large in combination coincidentally with a variety of unfavored factors, the ball bat will be broken. The break may occur on the handle section as mentioned above, or it may occur on the tapered section connected between the handle section and the hitting section.

In order to balance quality and production cost of the ball bat, various improved ball bat structures have been developed, such as embedding a fiber stick in the axial line of the hitting section and the tapered section of the ball bat to enhance the impact tolerance of the hitting section. However, to drill an axial bore on the axial line of the hitting section and the tapered section of the ball bat and to embed a fiber stick therein requires high processing and assembling precision. Besides, the process is time and work consuming, and will increase production costs. Moreover, the disposition of the fiber stick increases the thickness of the wood of the hitting section and the tapered section. When there are gaps formed between the fiber stick and the fiber stick embedding bore owing to bad processing or assembling, the formation of gaps reduce the strength of the exterior of the hitting section or the tapered section. Accordingly, the ball bat will be broken easily at the positions of those gaps when hitting hardly with the ball bat.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, in order to provide a structure that is different from the previous technology and to overcome the foregoing disadvantages, the present application is provided by the inventors through years of experience, continuous development, research, and improvement.

The main object of the present invention is to provide a ball bat which can solve the problem of time and work consuming and break easily of ball bats manufactured conventionally by providing an elongated support piece which has plural radial bores between two elongated wood pieces, so that the production costs can be reduced, and the resistance to breakage of the ball bat can be increased and thereby the service life of the ball bat can be extended.

To reach the object stated above, the present invention provides a ball bat, which comprises along an axis a handle section, a hitting section, and a tapered section connected between the handle section and the hitting section. The main technical features of the present invention comprise that the ball bat includes an elongated support piece, a first elongated wood piece and a second elongated wood piece, in which the elongated support piece has an elongated upper surface and a elongated lower surface opposite to the elongated upper surface, the elongated support piece has plural radial bores aligned axially and spaced from each other, the elongated upper surface of the elongated support piece faces upwards and is attached to the first elongated wood piece, and the elongated lower surface of the elongated support piece faces downwards and is attached to the second elongated wood piece, and thereby the elongated support piece is embedded and fixed between the first elongated wood piece and the second elongated wood piece.

In implementation, the elongated support piece, the first elongated wood piece and the second elongated wood piece extend from the handle section to the hitting section, respectively.

In implementation, the present invention further comprises a cladding layer, which is bonded to the exterior of the stacked first elongated wood piece, the elongated support piece, and the second elongated wood piece.

In implementation, the plural radial bores aligned axially and spaced from each other are disposed on the hitting section. The plural radial bores aligned axially and spaced from each other may be disposed on the hitting section and the tapered section as well.

The present invention will be understood more fully by reference to the detailed description below.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a breakdown drawing showing the components according to a preferable embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing the assembly according to a preferable embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTIONS OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Please referring to FIG. 1. The figure shows a ball bat 1 according to a preferable embodiment of the present invention. The ball bat 1 of the present invention comprises along an axis a handle section 2, a hitting section 3, and a tapered section 4 connected between the handle section 2 and the hitting section 3 identified by their function. The bottom of the handle section 2 is connected with a protruding annular stopper 21, so that the hitter can hold the handle section 2 tightly without dropping it by swinging the ball bat and hitting.

The ball bat 1 of the present invention comprises an elongated support piece 5, a first elongated wood piece 6, a second elongated wood piece 7, and a cladding layer 8 identified by their structure, in which the elongated support piece 5, the first elongated wood piece 6 and the second elongated wood piece 7 are solid wood pieces extending from the handle section 2 to the hitting section 3, respectively. In an embodiment, the elongated support piece 5 may be a woven fabric sheet fabricated by carbon fibers, glass fibers or other fibers, or may be a bamboo sheet, a synthetic bamboo sheet, a synthetic bamboo-wood sheet, or a synthetic wood sheet. The first elongated wood piece 6 and the second elongated wood piece 7 may also be a bamboo sheet, a synthetic bamboo sheet, a synthetic bamboo-wood sheet, or a synthetic wood sheet, respectively. The elongated support piece 5, the first elongated wood piece 6 and the second elongated wood piece 7 may also be a combination of multiple sheets, respectively.

The elongated support piece 5 has an elongated upper surface 51 and an elongated lower surface 52 opposite to the elongated upper surface 51. The elongated support piece 5 has plural radial bores 53 aligned axially and spaced from each other. The plural radial bores 53 may be cylindrical bores. The plural radial bores 53 may also be tetragonal bores. The first elongated wood piece 6 is attached to the elongated upper surface 51 of the elongated support piece 5, and the second elongated wood piece 7 is attached to the elongated lower surface 52 of the elongated support piece 5, so that the elongated support piece 5 is embedded and fixed between the first elongated wood piece 6 and the second elongated wood piece 7.

After the first elongated wood piece 6, the elongated support piece 5, and the second elongated wood piece 7 are stacked sequentially and are bonded as an integral by adhesive, the elongated support piece 5 is embedded between the first elongated wood piece 6 and the second elongated wood piece 7. The exterior of the stacked first elongated wood piece 6, the elongated support piece 5, and the second elongated wood piece 7 is then processed on a lathe and coated with a finishing coating, and thus a columnar ball bat is formed. The aforementioned finishing coating is taken as a cladding layer 8. The cladding layer 8 may also comprise an adhesive paper or a fiber cloth. The plural radial bores 53 that aligned axially and spaced from each other are disposed on the hitting section 3. In an embodiment, the plural radial bores 53 that aligned axially and spaced from each other may also be disposed on the hitting section 3 and the tapered section 4.

By that means, when a hitter hit with the ball bat, the region between neighboring radial bores 53 provide support, so that when the ball bat 1 is subjected to a large impact force from the hitting, the break probability of the ball bat 1 can be reduced.

Therefore, the present invention has the following advantages:

The sequential stacking of the first elongated wood piece, the elongated support piece, and the second elongated wood piece of the present invention can uniformly increase the resistance to breakage of the ball bat, so that ball bat break due to the thin thickness of the exterior layer or cracks on the exterior layer can be avoided effectively, and the service life of the ball bat can be extended.

The present invention provides plural radial bores on the elongated support piece. The overall weight of the ball bat and its center of gravity can be adjusted according to the number and allocation of the radial bores so as to adapt to the needs of different users.

To sum up, as disclosed above, the present invention can indeed meet its anticipated objective to provide a ball bat, which can have an extended service life and, moreover, can be adapted to the needs of different users. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A ball bat comprising: a handle section; a hitting section; a tapered section connected between the handle section and the hitting section; an elongated support piece; a first elongated wood piece; and a second elongated wood piece; the elongated support piece having an elongated upper surface and an elongated lower surface opposite to the elongated upper surface, the elongated support piece having plural radial bores aligned axially and spaced from each other, the elongated upper surface of the elongated support piece facing upwards and attached to the first elongated wood piece, and the elongated lower surface of the elongated support piece facing downwards and attached to the second elongated wood piece, thereby embedding and fixing the elongated support piece between the first elongated wood piece and the second elongated wood piece.
 2. The ball bat according to claim 1, wherein the plural radial bores aligned axially and spaced from each other are disposed on the hitting section.
 3. The ball bat according to claim 1, wherein the plural radial bores aligned axially and spaced from each other are disposed on the hitting section and the tapered section.
 4. The ball bat according to claim 1, wherein the elongated support piece, the first elongated wood piece and the second elongated wood piece extend from the handle section to the hitting section, respectively.
 5. The ball bat according to claim 4, wherein the plural radial bores aligned axially and spaced from each other are disposed on the hitting section.
 6. The ball bat according to claim 4, wherein the plural radial bores aligned axially and spaced from each other are disposed on the hitting section and the tapered section.
 7. The ball bat according to claim 1 further comprising a cladding layer, which is bonded to the exterior of the stacked first elongated wood piece, the elongated support piece, and the second elongated wood piece.
 8. The ball bat according to claim 7, wherein the plural radial bores aligned axially and spaced from each other are disposed on the hitting section.
 9. The ball bat according to claim 7, wherein the plural radial bores aligned axially and spaced from each other are disposed on the hitting section and the tapered section. 